Sunday, May 18, 2008
Sleep in the time of hypothermia
I knew before I started climbing the stairs that something was wrong; there was a strange smell in the air I couldn't quite place...
About an hour ago I found one of my neighbours slumped in her doorway, covered in sick and she can't get up. A burst of coughing and heaving told me she was still breathing, but I was really concerned about the cold. She was wearing a coat, but was barefoot and as I didn't have a tauntaun to slice open to keep her warm, I went and got a blanket to put over her while figuring out what to do next.
She'd emptied her purse out all over the place and the only speech-like sounds I could get out of her were "no keys". Tried to call her housemate from her phone, no credit. Call from my phone, get connected but too much noise & get hung up on. Call again from home phone, no joy.
Get bucket and jug of water. When she pushes herself up to take a sip, I spot blood. I can see a scrape on her knee, but she can't tell me whether or not she's injured anywhere else and collapses heaving again. I call 000.
Tense 10 minute wait. Keep checking that she's breathing.
Ambo arrives, does quick assessment, starts to clean her up. Finally get through to her housemate, she's on her way.
When housemate arrives with keys and opens the door, Ambo helps her to the bathroom and then gets some more medical history info out of the housemate. He leaves after telling housemate to get her cleaned up a bit more and getting her into bed and making sure she's on her side. I help housemate collect her stuff that's strewn across the landing, wait around a bit to make sure they're both ok .
A paraletic girl locked out on a cold night isn't exactly ER stuff, but not knowing what else to do besides checking breathing, getting a blanket and not moving her when I suspected injuries was scary. I'm going to sign up to a first aid course this week.
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Was she drunk? It would be the only explanation of the stupidity of a person to stay outside in the cold if they had forgotten their keys. Daft cow.
Nice one R. You can assume this girl is a complete moron - which I agree is quite possible, and the first conclusion I'd jump to as well. Getting in a last few cheapo alcopops maybe?
But you just never know when someone in this state, especially a young woman, has had a drink spiked. In which case she's damn lucky that she's managed to make it to her own doorstep, and all she has is a scrape on the knee.
How old was the 'girl' Dno?
She's an APS grad, so I'm guessing 23/24.